The Mobile County Public School System is enforcing new security protocols this year, including weapons detectors at the school entrances, vape detectors in bathrooms and confiscating cell phones during class hours.

The MCPSS said it will begin locking cell phones in safes or Yondr pouches at the beginning of the school day in each student’s homeroom. The lockboxes have been piloted at Hankins Middle School, where students turn in their phones in the morning and pick them up before dismissal. The Yondr pouches allow students to carry their phones with them but can only be unlocked by a teacher at dismissal.

“If you are a high school student, you can decide to leave your cell phone in your car as an option as well,” Mobile County School Board President Don Stringfellow said.

The system’s enhanced safety plan described “remarkable improvement in student grades and academic performance, as well as a decrease in disciplinary problems” due to the policy’s enforcement last year in two middle schools. 

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The school system will use touchless Evolv Express weapons detection systems which students must walk through each morning before school begins.

“If it picks up something like a gun or knife, then the personnel that is there at the machine when the light goes off will pull the student aside to be checked,” Stringfellow said.

Evolv claims its technology can screen 4,000 people per hour.

“The smaller high schools and middle schools will have one and the larger high schools will have two entrances,” Stringfellow said.

The vape detectors are Halo Smart Sensors made by Motorola Solutions and can detect THC and vape smoke, specific keywords and loud noises, such as gunshots or shouting. Any keywords, such as “help,” will notify administrative personnel to the location of the detector.

The weapons detectors will be installed first due to the availability of the Halo detectors.

Clear backpacks for all students are not mandatory this year since the MCPSS has not received enough backpacks for all students but schools with enough materials will enforce the rule. The clear backpacks will be mandatory for all students once enough materials arrive for each school. 

For more information on these new security protocols, visit mcpss.com/safetyandsecurity.

Courtesy of Call News.